So, my focus recently has been here, so I started putting pen to paper. I mostly wrote up pre-history, and I plan on adding more about a subset of Crintri who inhabit the Cliffside city of Peleverai alongside other races (short gist there, 3 of the Queen of Dambrath's daughters were in a competition to gather herds of horses and other beasts when the spellplague hit, and they had at least a 200 Crintri, plus Arkaiun humans, for each princess.... these princesses are very competitive, and each is heading a different path upon the return... one is worshipping Kiga the Predator, and wants to recover Dambrath... and thus she intends to break away from the tharch of Peleveran

one Crintri princess is worshipping Inanna, goddess of war and love (and was her weakened avatar) and is in love with the "reborn" incarnation of Ramman (working out that story still, but picturing Ramman being mortally born of weakened avatars of Khass the Rain God and Ki)... and with the aid of Chessentan descendants born in Peleveran, drow followers of Eilistraee, some jungle half-elves of the Chondalwood, and avariel of the adder hills has moved to retake Akanax from the Abeirans who were holding the territory and were transferred to Toril... such that Pandrick is the nearby city of warlike humans only and Akanax is a polyglot of mixed elves and humans, all of warrior gods or goddesses (Ramman, Inanna, and Eilistraee)... so this is already a breakaway from the Tharch of Peleveran

and one Crintri princess is focused on arcane magic and staying with the tharch in the Cliffside city of Peleverai). I did add a little bit about some Imaskari who have moved in just recently.

Anyway, on to the main reason of this post

Peleveria Cliffside City (approx population 24,000, roughly 30% human, 25% Crintri-blooded half-elf, 25% dark elf, 10% genasi (primarily those with an affinity for earth), 5% dwarf, 5% other races ) Notable Individuals/Residents: Halifaern Hazm'cri (Autharch managing the city), Description The Cliffside city of Peleveria was created many thousands of years ago just after the collapse of the great cavern of Bhaerynden upon the dark elves of Telantiwar. Survivors of Telantiwar who worshipped Lolth, Ghaunadaur, and Kiaransalee followed newly created paths or used oozes or undead workers to create emergency paths to see them and their people to safety. Eventually, they found their way to a cliff face in a river gorge along the landrise and began hollowing out the interior caverns and diverting a small portion of the river into this interior and growing fungus farms. Later, they began small raids upon the dwarves of the Great Rift and the wild elves and gnolls of the plains of the Western Shaar, but they were careful to hide the path back to their new home.

Eventually, the dwarves and elves of the surface land worked together to track the drow to a cave opening behind a waterfall in the landrise. They found an aesthetically beautiful, yet disturbing city on the interior, filled with poisonous spiders, dark elven zombies, skeletons, mummies, and banshees, as well as traps filled with oozes, slimes, and gelatinous cubes. The dwarven and elven invaders managed to drive the dark elves out, but only after great loss of life on their part. Meanwhile, the dark elves escaped with a sizable number of gnoll slaves to help them rebuild elsewhere in places such as Vaerndoun and Llurth Dreier. It was then that the elves and dwarves took up residence themselves in the river gorge, adding further openings on the exterior walls of the river gorge and creating a winding system of aqueducts to bring water into small interior ponds and wells.

To commemorate this building of elven and dwarven cooperation, they erected a giant, hollow copper statue of an elf and a dwarf midway down the length of the gorge and connecting both sides. The dwarf was naturally shown to be in larger scale, as is common in statues created by their race, so that the two figures would reach the same height. The two figures, an elven female and a dwarf male , held their arms skyward and supported a great brazier, atop which was a twisting sculpture of writhing flame, decorated with flickering faerie fire-like lights that slowly changed their hue from a deep purplish indigo at dawn, vibrant blue in the early morning, a verdant green just before midday, a deep yellow at highsun, a rich orange in the afternoon, and finally soft red and pink hues as the sun sets. Throughout the night, it gives off a soft, violet glow which gives off enough light to make out the many cave-like openings along the landrise in this river gorge.. When it rains, the sky above the entire gorge is filled with wavering and intermixing rainbows, and it is believed that this is a later blessing bestowed by Khass the Rain Lord. The interior of the two structures contains stairs which connect the two sides of the river gorge, and a small platform of flat rock suitable for massing fifty or more individuals anchors each side. These platforms are decorated in the style of the culture that lived on that side of the cliffside city, green elves on the north and dwarves on the south. In addition, the girth of the dwarvent statue allows for numerous additional areas in which doors could be opened and arrow slits cut, allowing for equipment such as ballista and mangonel batteries for repelling the occasional marauding dragon, roc, or other large, magical beast. Much smaller but similar wall sconces fill the inner city of Peleveria to this day, many with continual flame spells that mirror the colors of the statue-bridge.

Then came a dwarf who sought to increase their own personal power through making deals with fiends. A young dwarf runelord, Bathak, passed over by his father for his younger brother to be Thane, came upon the black pit, and upon staring into its interior, his mind shattered. He heard whispers of power, if he would only draw her sign and accept the presence of Aym, Queen Avarice, she would allow him to burn his enemies. Bathak then slit his brother's throat and tossed his lifeless body into the seemingly bottomless pit filled with reflections of stars that did not exist above it. Little is known of what happened afterward, other than that the city was set aflame and the caverns were filled with fiends. The city was abandoned and believed to be cursed, but not before runic wards were enacted to cage the horrors that had filled it.

It would be millenia before the city would once again become inhabited. This time it was humans from several different tribes and races who discovered the city. The wards covering the city had eroded to the point that they allowed the fiends to wander farther afield, though they could not summon their fellows nor translocate themselves anywhere except back to the cliffside city. Still, they could hunt and kill. They could rape. They could make bargains for power, both foul and contemptuous. Their impact was quickly and severely felt.

The human tribes of the region were incensed, and they would not be satisfied until every one of the fiends living in the city were slain. Luckily, the number of fiends had been reduced over time through internal strife, such that achieving this goal was not insurmountable. With the magical aid of a Shaaryan-blooded spirit shaman by the name of Peleveria and an Arkaiun druid-mage named Gavar, they had tracked several fiends back to the city. Working together to summon the Great Spirits of Khass the Rain Lord and Eldath of the Flowing Rivers, the two spellcasters offered themselves bodily to serve as vessels for their god-like magnificence. After becoming imbued with their power, they then summoned a small army of minor air, water, and storm elementals, with which they did aid the humans' entry, capture, and cleansing of the cliffside city amidst a powerful rainstorm. In so doing, they did collapse some tunnels and force a small portion of the river Shaar to exit out of tunnels on both the north and south cliff faces past the giant statue-bridge which spans the gorge. In a final act of purification, Peleveria did use the power of Eldath to redirect a stream of holy water from these newly created rivers to flow throughout the cavern complex and into the black pit from which the fiends had come. So long as this trickling stream would continue to flow, the black power of the pit would be contained.

So, it was decided that the tribes would join together and make a new home with the druid-mage Gavar as its king. Their king then named the city Peleveria, after its first queen, and he did both marry and impregnate her on the spot with the blessings of Khass the Rain Lord and Eldath of the Flowing Rivers still upon them both. They would form a line of mixed-blooded humans of both Arkaiun and Shaaryan descent, but possessed of a natural power which manifested itself in their line as powerful sorcerers and battlemagi.

Compared to their own tribal squalor, this city was amazing, despite the damage dealt it during its previous fall and the current cleansing. Combining a mixture of dark elven, dwarven, and elven artistry and stonework, for many it was like nothing they had ever seen before or even imagined. So, the tribal peoples of both Shaaryan and Arkaiun descent happily took up residence in the ancient cliffside city and began building farms at the top of the landrise. Under the rulership of the descendants of Gavar and Peleveria, they peacefully expanded north and east, absorbing small tribal units to form a small kingdom which would become named Peleveran.

In recognition of their aid and to gain their favor, carvings representative of Khass and Eldath, intertwined in the act of lovemaking, surround the falls created on the north and south cliff faces. These openings have ample space in the surrounding caves which have allowed for additional caves to be built along these new streams. It was not uncommon for expecting mothers and their families to move into these caves in the weeks leading up to the birthing of their children, for it was expected that they would receive the blessings of these great powers in doing so. All newborns so birthed were cleansed with the waters of this stream, and the water left over from this cleansing was used in a ritual to rejuvenate the mother.

And so it was that time passed, and the kingdom of Peleveran solidified. The lands of Peleveran became tree-cloaked fertile lands with the blessings of Khass and Eldath, and soon the worship of Grumbar and Silvanus also spread amongst the people. Relations with the elves of the Chondalwood and the dwarves of the great rift were renewed, and trade between their kingdoms was successful. The population of the cliffside city of Peleveria blossomed, and caverns which had not been used for millenia were repurposed to support families, granaries, reservoirs, tribal cooking and dining areas, bazaars, smithies, and numerous other roles. This also involved some occasional work to repair old facilities, which also led at one point to a small tunnel collapse in 1001 DR (the year of the Awakening) that temporarily shut off the stream leading to the northern cliff face, as well as the stream leading into the Dark Pit of Maleficence.

Soon afterward, news of a ghost dragon named Ragflaconshen which had been discovered by priests of Abbathor was being sent to the cult of the dragon. However, the messenger somehow totally confused the information on the location, which was beneath the Turnback mountains north of the Tortured Lands near Anauroch, and instead reported that the ghost dragon was in the city of Peleveran. There are those who believe that Gargauth caused this misinformation in order to lure Tuelhalva Drakewings to to the Dark Pit of Maleficence, which is believed to have ties to the wells of darkness in the abyss. One of the dwarven priests was a priest-binder who it was said habitually formed a pact with the dwarven vestige, Aym, Queen of Avarice. It is thought that Gargauth's connection to Astaroth, himself a vestige after Gargauth defeated him, somehow enabled Gargauth to obtain information on the actions of the priests via the vestige of Aym. If this is true, then Gargauth has access to a powerful source of information gathering that few others have even begun to contemplate. Using other resources, which are unclear at this time, he either altered the memory of the location in the messenger of the Cult of the Dragon, coerced the individual to change the story, or was capable of seizing control of the individual even from within his entrapment, and thus it was the Tuelhalva Drakewings found himself in the capital city of Peleveran and seeking out the Dark Pit of Maleficence.

It would take nearly seventeen years for Tuelhalva to gather the resources and personal power to enact the ritual required to free Gargauth from the Dark Pit of Maleficence. There are those who believe that this is because Gargauth himself had been entrapped in the Wells of Darkness himself that this casting was so complex. The truth of this matter is unclear, but what is known is that in 1018 DR, Gargauth was freed from the Dark Pit of Maleficence, and upon becoming free he summoned a horde of hellspawn to serve Tuelhalva in seizing the throne of Peleveran. As Peleveran fell to the armies of baatezu, the great fiend of the pit flew north, whispering lies of Tuelhalva destroying an ancient undead dragon king he had found in the ears of the leadership of the Cult of the Dragon. Within a month of Tuelhalva's coronation, a Rage of Dragons descended on Peleveran, and when it passed not a trace of that nation nor Tuelhalva remained.

So it was that the cliffside city of Peleveran fell into ruin once again. With its fall, the worship of Khass the Rain Lord also fell on hard times. Some even whispered that the avatar of Khass had been killed in combat defending the capital and slaying several dracoliches himself. Many of his worshippers had died, and there was no new generation to take their place, and so slowly the god grew silent. Over time the tribes of the surrounding land would slowly encroach upon the territory, for from the ashes the land itself did recover, but it never flourished as it had during the age of the kingdom of Peleveran. The city of Peleverai itself was considered to be cursed, and it was whispered that those who visited it were soon captured and sacrificed to devils. So it was that it would take over four centuries and desperation for humans to once again enter the city of Peleverai.

<fill in this section with more on the subset of Crintri and their drow slaves who live here>

Ilphomar Manaq'oya, Khazir of Arcane Craftsmanship, was once the right hand man to Lord Artificer Qhapaq of High Imaskar. During the events of the sundering, the city of Skyclave fell under the assault of the mighty wizard, Nezram, the World-Walker, and his army of mages. Nezram had blamed the High Imaskari people for destabilizing the region by moving, through some unwitting use of the celestial nadir, the Palace of Purple Emperor atop where Skuld, the ancient capital of Mulhorand, would have been. In essence, Nezram blamed the High Imaskari for much of the devastation and exchange of lands caused during the spellplague. In fact, some in the Tharch of Peleveran openly wonder if in fact Nezram is correct. During the tumult of the assault, Ilphomar led a large population of Imaskari artificers and their families from High Imaskar by ordering a flight of twenty redwings, giant dragonfly-like creatures, to land their gondolas and carry the fleeing citizens southward. These gondolas operate using a trick of Imaskari magic which creates an extradimensional space within its interior, allowing for the transport of scores of individuals or a large amount of cargo.

In total, 14 redwings survived to transport their people to the Tharch of Peleveran, holding to the simple hope that the people of this returned land would welcome them. Over 500 Imaskari, of which half their number were arcane spellcasters, managed to make the transfer. They have tentatively been allowed to join the Tharch of Peleveran and given homes within the cavernous cliff system that is old Peleveria. In return, they are expected to use their engineering and magical skills to improve the ancient city. Many of these individuals were immigrants from Deep Imaskar within the last two decades, and thus living in the darkened environment of this cliffside city is not unusual to them, and they have begun making themselves at home in the northern cliff face. Their redwings with their extradimensional gondolas have become a common site transporting goods and people between Upper Peleveran, Lower Peleveria, and Peleveria Cliffside City. Secretly, Zulkir Lauzoril and his fellow Aulkirs plan to mine the minds of these Imaskari for news of the changes wrought upon Toril during their absence, and so they set their own people to serve as aides to these transplanted folk, meanwhile spying upon them and gaining their trust.

Yes, mostly was posting this to see if I had any glaring errors in my base. BTW, I must thank Markustay for the pictorial ideas of what it would look like, and BadCatMan many months ago making me aware of the god Khass from complete book of Barbarians. I figured if Khass was a rain god in the Shaar, and after the spellplague the whole region dried up, it could make sense that he had disappeared to Abeir.

BTW, on the topic of "sky/weather gods", I'm envisioning there being several in the area now. First there's Enlil/Anu, then as noted, I'm considering bringing back Ramman (and creating a love relationship with Inanna), and then there's Khass (who seems like a primordial mind you). Then of course, there's also Talos who was in the region. As much as I love Talos, I feel like maybe his leaving and returning should have put him in a bad footing. I feel like in the past he had actually absorbed many other "god-like" entities and that maybe these entities are returned as lesser gods of weather (or other portfolios even). Bhaelros may be back as his Primordial self. So, Talos may be struggling against various other entities. In particular, one of these freed entities that I intend to research is "Malyk, god of wild magic and destructive" whom Talos helped raise following the ToT and whom he soon absorbed (as he intended to do with Velsharoon).

My intent here is to A) create another god of magic who may turn to Mystra to protect himself (even though he is somewhat anti-thetical to her morals), and this intenty will represent wild magic, but also maybe things like "discovery" and "breaking away from established theory". He may even grow in strength by having people pray for him to not interfere with their experiments similar to how people pray for the Bitch Queen to leave their ships alone or Auril to not freeze them to death. It should be noted as well that it specifically states that he has "a portion of Mystra's power", so there's a lot that could in theory be done with him.

B) create a ton of weather gods and heresies so that whatever becomes the final truth can maybe still be true. For instance, my metahel pantheon mirrors the Norse and has Sifya and Thoros..... who will look a lot like Inanna and Ramman. Is Khass actually Enlil / Anu? Is Bhaelros one of these or both (which to note, Bhaelros is a god of the elements with a dragon pet... and so was Anu... but then so were primordials)? Is Talos any of these beings? Is one or several of these beings actually the giant god Stronmaus? Similar things can be said for godesses of rivers and nature. We don't actually have to know the answers here, just establish what the heresies might be.

In the end, I'd like to have "Returned Chessenta" becoming a country with its own Pantheon of a mixture of old Unther, some Shaaryan, and some Faerunian entities. The tharch of Peleveran will have a broader but similar mix. Unther itself will shape itself out, as will Tymanther, under other people's designs. Chondath as well we might find has also become a battleground for pantheons, as we don't know what the hell was really going on with it during the time it was plaguelands.

In the end, while I see the people of Chessenta having allied with the tharch of Peleveran (and even helped form it) during the spellplague, I see the three city states of Cimbar, Soorenar, and Akanax as eventually all 3 breaking away from Peleveran... and still all 3 not working together (and all 3 being very different than their original incarnation with less humanocentric viewpoints). But, they will not like the idea of Erebos ruling them. They will not like the idea of the Karanoks in Luthcheq ruling them. Some may even want to rebuild Mordulkin in Eastern Chessenta, but that may be stretching things.

Just because its hard to find info on the god Malyk, posting some from the original sources. Eric Boyd then added more in Faiths and Avatars when Talos had absorbed Malyk and used his portfolios to try to take over "wild and destructive magic".

On the Cult of Malyk from Menzoberranzan pg 52 There is also a growing cult in the Underdark: the worship of Malyk, The Dark Mage, who represents wild and evil magic #151;all that is mysterious and a challenge to authority. Some wild mages will worship him, and folk of the Underdark will encounter more and more wizshades(detailed in Volume 7 of the Monstrous Compendium, the first SPELLJAMMER® appendix), believed to be his servants. Apparitionsof empty, cowled robes that move and gesture as if filled by an invisible body, but which collapse into drifting smoke if attacked, will become a feature of the subterranean world#151; and will bethought to be manifestations of Malyk.

To keep wizards of Sorcere (most of whom have always felt rebellious#151; if not daring to be actively so#151;towards the rule of her high priestesses) loyal to her, not turning to this upstart Malyk, Lloth will grant the wizards of Menzoberranzan new and powerful spells. They will grow more able to ignore or thwart the orders and cruelties of priestesses, if not more influential and prominent in Menzoberranyrsociety.

also there was this From Drizzt Do'Urden's Guide to the Underdark pg 92-93 Whereas the clergy rules most drow enclaves, Sshamath reduces priests to marginal roles. In many ways, priests emulate the practices and concerns of the ruling wizard caste. In addition to the faiths discussed below, small sects of Azuth, Mystra, Savras, Velsharoon, and even various members of the Seldarine are known to exist. The latter appear in the guise of previously unknown drowdemipowers, without the benefit of true priests.

The Cult of Malyk purports to revere a divine entity whose faith first appeared in the Underdark after the Time of Troubles. Malyk, secretly an aspect of Talos, is said to be the god of wild, evil magic and rebellion. Followers claim that their god was an aged, powerful Sshamathan drow lich who stole some of Mystra's power when he stumbled across a powerful wild magic region in the Underdark beneath Castle Crag. Since the Conclave of Sshamath banned wild magic long ago, wild magic practitioners have chafed under the rule of the city's schools of wizardry.

Several years after the Fall of the Gods, the Cult of Malyk scored its greatest coup against the conclave by capturing the Guardian's Tear, a powerful relic created by Helm. This massive king's tear is fashioned from raw magic that spins off 'bubbles' of wild and dead magic. When a half dozen wild mages of the Cult of Malyk relocatedthe Guardian's Tear to Sshamath, chaos predictably ensued. For months, magical research and fabrication were severely disrupted by spheres of wild and dead magic drifting undetected through the city.

Eventually the Conclave of Sshamath, exhibiting rare unanimity, drove the followers of Malyk into the surrounding Underdark along with the Guardian's Tear they had come to revere. Nevertheless, zones of wild and dead magic, while rare, continue to plague the city, sometimesdestroying years of effort and research. This has greatly impacted the availability of many items traditionally offered for sale in the Dark Weavings Bazaar. Rumors of the cult's continued activities suggest that the threat has not yet abated.

At present, the Cult of Malyk is led by a mysterious wizard known only as the Wildstorm (CE male drow WM19). Seventeen wild mages serve as the sect's clergy. The Shrine of the Weavetear may be found nearly anywhere in the environs of Sshamath or even in the city itself, as the relic is said to be located wherever the Guardian's Tear hovers and spins.

So, was thinking about this city while in the shower and how I'd at one point tried to make a picture of what this city might look like if rebirthed. Basically, I'm picturing this as a city built into the side of the landrise along the valley walls of what was pictured as a gorge where the river Shaar flowed into the western Shaar. The 3rd edition shining south also seemed to show that this river exiting the land rise was an underground river that extended from the great rift. My thoughts were that the great rift and land rise was formed when something slammed into the eastern Shaar, caused the collapse on Bhaerynden (spelling?) and then proceeded to travel into the earth deeper. This later formed the riftlake and the river that exits out of the landrise.

So, picturing this concept, I've also pictured that this river possible was forcibly diverted throughout the edge of the landrise on the section that made the gorge, such that this "Pueblo" like city built into the walls of the cliff face would have multiple waterfalls along the path. It could even drop out of one section of the wall, and pool on a lower level, and then flow back into the cliffside city. This might mean that the cliffside city might have numerous trees and flora decorating the sides of it. Furthermore, it also occurred to me that this would make for things like waste disposal, but you wouldn't want that feeding back into your regular drinking supply.

Just throwing this up here to see if anyone has any good lore on actual cliffside cities and any caveats or special things that come about as a result of such development.

Is the same city from gargauth writeup in powers and pantheons and cult of the dragon?

Yes it is Eric. I don't believe it every got officially placed until 3rd edition in the Shining South add on, where it was placed right along the landrise where the river Shaar started. The 3rd edition map doesn't show it, but the 2nd edition Waterdeep Trail Map shows this spot in the landrise as something like a gorge (which would fit if water's been running through here for millenia). You will notice some other references from some other things you came up with that I also tried to tie together from other resources.

Soon afterward, news of a ghost dragon named Ragflaconshen which had been discovered by priests of Abbathor was being sent to the cult of the dragon. However, the messenger somehow totally confused the information on the location, which was beneath the Turnback mountains north of the Tortured Lands near Anauroch, and instead reported that the ghost dragon was in the city of Peleveran. There are those who believe that Gargauth caused this misinformation in order to lure Tuelhalva Drakewings to to the Dark Pit of Maleficence, which is believed to have ties to the wells of darkness in the abyss. One of the dwarven priests was a priest-binder who it was said habitually formed a pact with the dwarven vestige, Aym, Queen of Avarice. It is thought that Gargauth's connection to Astaroth, himself a vestige after Gargauth defeated him, somehow enabled Gargauth to obtain information on the actions of the priests via the vestige of Aym. If this is true, then Gargauth has access to a powerful source of information gathering that few others have even begun to contemplate. Using other resources, which are unclear at this time, he either altered the memory of the location in the messenger of the Cult of the Dragon, coerced the individual to change the story, or was capable of seizing control of the individual even from within his entrapment, and thus it was the Tuelhalva Drakewings found himself in the capital city of Peleveran and seeking out the Dark Pit of Maleficence.

So, the ghost dragon is from the Abbathor entry in Demihuman deities. The Tuelhalva Drakewings stuff is from your stuff and other later resources. Timewise, the two match up almost perfectly. I don't know if you did that on purpose, but I linked them to explain why Tuelhalva was searching for some undead dragon in Peleveria that we never find. It was possibly misinformation by Gargauth using vestiges to relay information via a rather strange network.

In talking with other people here, it made since that perhaps this was a city that had been occupied by several different cultures, each adding their own piece to it. Thus the whole dark elves, then dwarves and elves, then humans, storyline. Also, the giant statues serving as a bridge to connect the two sides of the gorge.

The premise I have is that the Underchasm that appeared during the spellplague wasn't just some collapse. Rather the idea is that on Abeir, this area was the Underchasm with earthmotes. So, basically, an empty area of Abeir transferred to a filled area of Toril. So, when the sundering happened, Grumbar helped transfer the land back.

During the time that effectively a large portion of the Eastern Shaar just transferred over to Abeir, portions of Cimbar, Soorenar, and other Chessentan, Untheric, and Chondathan cities believed destroyed were simply transferred to Abeir (leaving many dead, but some areas transferred well). In many of these cities were Thayan enclaves, and the populations of these enclaves were swelled with Mulan refugees from their civil war. These cities also had numerous non-Thayan Mulan peoples as well, in addition to those of Chondathan and Turami bloodlines.

So, the general concept is that the Thayan enclaves and the Chessentan peoples unite and flee their former city states because of nearby threats. They know of an ancient abandoned city in the landrise. They figure they can flee there and maybe form a new society. They end up building a city at the top of the cliff face and one at the bottom where the river exits the gorge.

When they arrive, they find that three Crintri "princesses" of Dambrath had been on a competition to gather herds of stallions from the Shaar with their personal retinues of guards and servants. After the spellplague, they found themselves in a new world, and they also fled to this ancient city. The two groups (humans and Crintri) to form their new society. During this time, they also invade a dark elven city beneath the city of Torsch and enslave many dark elves (after the dark elves attempt to attack the Peleveran population).

Some things I'm wanting to link are your Pit of Maleficence from that P&P entry with the concept of vestiges and the wells of darkness. I'm also wanting to include basically a giant buried metallic object that created the river under the earth. This object was the source of the creation of the great rift and the crack that basically shifted the earth to create the landrise itself (i.e. picture a meteor slamming into the earth, tilting the shaar, an causing the collapse of Bhaerynden onto the dark elves) and possibly making said object/meteor have some interesting affects on the Faerzress of the surrounding areas (and like ironsteel mined from Telos, it may be able to be mined and regrow, and used to make objects that have a strong link to the elements of earth, plants, air, and water... but have it act more like a softer metal similar to gold/copper/brass... and the statues that connect the two gorge sides of the elf/dwarf holding the brazier may be coated thinly with this material as a sheathing... because may they had known about it long ago). This object will have links to a Shaaryan sky god SOMEHOW named Khass (from the Complete Barbarian's Handbook).

Now, what caused that meteor to smack into that dark elven colony of Telantiwar? Were there maybe some rogue Vyshaan High Mages who still weren't exactly happy with the outcome of the fifth crown war 2 centuries prior? Maybe it was just luck? Maybe something else?

But anyway, picture-wise, I was picturing something where the water is forced down to the western end of the gorge along each side, exits as a waterfall to a lower level and REENTERS the city flowing back EASTWARD within the cliffside city, exits as a waterfall to a lower level and REENTERS the city flowing back WESTWARD within the cliffside city, then REENTERS the city flowing back EASTWARD within the cliffside city, then exits as a waterfall on each side that actually forms the actual river Shaar, along with another massive waterfall that exits at the end of the gorge (so 3 water streams joining together).

At one point, I'd tried to make a picture. Its pretty bad, but was a start. Here it is.

I trust you're aware of real cliff dwellings like the ones at Mesa Verde?

I know of it. I've never been TO it, and actually I'm really interested in visiting it... if only it weren't so far away in Colorado from where I live (and while I would enjoy it, not sure that my girlfriend and her daughter would be as enthused as compared to say a trip to the smokies which is closer and has a water park). Actually looking at pictures of it gave me a different idea for how to build the city in the cliff side (essentially making "shelves" which have actual clay structures built, such that its not just some underdark type city, but rather one that can get rain, sunlight, grow crops on their roofs, etc...).

However, if someone has ever visited it, and they remembered some interesting fact on how those people lived, I'm all ears.

I trust you're aware of real cliff dwellings like the ones at Mesa Verde?

I know of it. I've never been TO it, and actually I'm really interested in visiting it... if only it weren't so far away in Colorado from where I live (and while I would enjoy it, not sure that my girlfriend and her daughter would be as enthused as compared to say a trip to the smokies which is closer and has a water park). Actually looking at pictures of it gave me a different idea for how to build the city in the cliff side (essentially making "shelves" which have actual clay structures built, such that its not just some underdark type city, but rather one that can get rain, sunlight, grow crops on their roofs, etc...).

However, if someone has ever visited it, and they remembered some interesting fact on how those people lived, I'm all ears.

I have visited it, but I was 10 at the time, and I'm sure I don't recall anything that you'd not find in Wikipedia or in a more informative source.

Some things I'm wanting to link are your Pit of Maleficence from that P&P entry with the concept of vestiges and the wells of darkness.

You may have this already, but I also wrote up the Wells of Darkness in a Dungeon adventure.

Yeah, from there I noted that Astaroth is trapped in the wells of darkness and he's related to Gargauth in that that's one of the being Gargauth defeated. That's actually what kind of made me correlate the Pit of Maleficence (which noone knows WHAT it is exactly, your hints were that it might go to hell) with the Wells of Darkness. I also noted that there's some of what might be considered Untheric deities trapped there (Dahak being written up as being trapped there). There was also the note that Gilgeam had basically run off some other Untheric deities (but not Ramman and Ishtar) after the orcgate wars and that made me wonder if perhaps Dahak had been imprisoned somehow via the Pit of Maleficence into the Wells of Darkness.

On an aside, it kind of makes me wonder if there couldn't as well be a link to the formation of the demoncysts and links to the wells of darkness on Toril. It would make certain areas a little more creepy to me (Dun-Tharos, Dun-Orthass, the Pit of Maleficence, and say the demoncyst where Eltab was held trapped) and might help explain more of Orcus' interest in certain areas. Not sure where to take it if I did conflate the two, but it could prove an interesting idea for involving vestiges on Toril.